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Research and Development |
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GPCR Therapeutic Antibody Program
GPCRs have traditionally been good drug targets for small molecule compounds
and peptides. Antibody therapeutics against GPCRs has been relatively new
and still in early-stage clinical trials. However, cases where small ligands
can not be obtained, for example, Family II GPCRs, monoclonal antibody
can be a great alternative approach. Monoclonal antibodies may bind and
lock GPCR in its active form and function as agonists. In addition, since
the extracellular domains of GPCRs are more diverse than the rest of GPCR
proteins including the transmembrane domains that small molecule compounds
typically bind, monoclonal antibodies may bind to GPCRs more specifically
than small molecules and thus can better distinguish subtle sequence and
structural differences within sub-family members. Since GPCRs are also
known to be overexpressed in many tumors, an outstanding advantage of GPCR
antibody therapeutics is its function as specific carriers for toxins or
payload, guiding specific and accurate destructions of cancer cells but
not normal cells. This technology is maturing industry-wide in recent years
and has a powerful potential impact on cancer treatments.
Multispan emphasizes the therapeutic potentials in the targets selected
outside of the blood-brain barrier, focusing on two major disease areas:
Immunology and Cancer, and established in vitro pre-clinical assay platforms
for antibody drug lead selections. Our capabilities in generating high
expressing GPCRs in mammalian cell lines, making antibodies with cell-based
immunization to capture native epitopes and in-house preclinical assay
development expertise has well positioned us to become one of the future
leaders in the GPCR antibody therapeutic field.
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